Sharts and Charts - Ending a 1-year Ultra Drought

A little over a year since I finished my last ultra, Tarawera 102k, I’ve finally finished another - Tinajas 50k.

Julie and I both love Colorado Bend state park - they have some of the more technical and challenging trails you can find in Texas, deep in the heart of the hill country.  I ran this race 2 years ago in its inaugural year there, and won it with a 4:15.  Yesterday, I pulled off the win again. With a 4:15.




This year I was a lot less confident in my fitness level. I took it out responsibly and easy, but found myself in first place pretty quickly.  In general, I was still pretty gun shy about actually racing.  I let myself stretch out the legs on some of the wide-open downhills but mostly kept it at what I’d call an anti-bonk effort level.

I did get passed by a relay team around mile 13, but other than that, my biggest challenge was GI-related.  Despite several fruitful trips to the toilet before the race, I had a sneaky fart that I should not have trusted which led to a trip off-trail behind some bushes, and some dumb-and-dumber-like explosions.


After the last aid station, I picked it up from anti-bonk pace into a race effort, and found it quite easy to drop the pace.  I finished with a shameful amount of energy remaining, which is really encouraging, even if it made me feel a little like a wuss for holding back.


I’ve been averaging 75 miles a week through the first 2 months of 2019.  Definitely turned things around since hitting age 40; if a mid-life milestone is what it takes to get back to enjoying the only hobby I’ve ever really stuck with, I will take it!  Winning a race is a great motivator to keep things rolling.  Here’s the chart update that I’ve cluttered up with a 26-week lookback line.

I didn’t think yesterday would go so well without the long-term base underneath me, but maybe I’m learning you can “cram for the test” in some of these shorter ultras.

My target race this year is a 120-miler in August in British Columbia, Canada — the Fat Dog 120.  That’s my motivation to get that red line up several notches higher.  The best part is that I’m really enjoying the journey, which is the only way this can last.

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